Thomas Graham

Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (19 October 1748-18 December 1843) was a general of Great Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.

Biography
Thomas Graham was born in 1748 in Perthshire, Scotland. He became a sportsman and a lover of dogs and horses, and cultivated potatoes and turnips as foods. In 1785 he purchased Lynedoch (Lednock) as an estate to live in, and he married into high society many times.

During the French Revolutionary Wars he served as a volunteer in the British Army at the Siege of Toulon in 1793, before being sent to Gibraltar. By 1795 he had grown tired of the listlessness of being part of a garrison and joined the army of the Austrian Empire during the Italian Campaign, serving under Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser. After the Siege of Mantua and the Austrian surrender, he returned home to Scotland but rejoined his regiment at Gibraltar later in 1797. He fought in the reduction of Minorca and later fought in the Capture of Malta in 1798-1800, taking the island from the French. While serving under General Ralph Abercromby in Egypt in 1801 he toured Egypt and Turkey, seeing the historical locations in the two countries. He rode from Constantinople to Vienna on a horse in his most favorite horse ride.

During the Napoleonic Wars he spent most of 1805-1808 in the Caribbean, but in 1808 he joined Sir John Moore in Spain during the Peninsular War. At the Battle of La Coronna, Moore's last words while mortally wounded were "Are Colonel Graham and my aides-de-camp safe?". After his return to England he was made a Major General and fought in the failed 1809 Battle of Walcheren, but malaria forced him to return home again.

When he recovered, he was sent back to Spain, and defeated Marshal Claude-Victor Perrin at the Battle of Barrosa in March 1811 during Perrin's siege of Cadiz. His victory was incomplete due to Manuel la Pena's poor command skills, but he was congratulated by Parliament and La Pena was stripped of command. In 1812 he aided in the reduction of the Ciudad Rodrigo portal into Spain and in 1813 he captured San Sebastian. Poor health again forced him to return home, but he returned to command in the United Netherlands in 1814. He captured Bergen-op-Zoom in the last stages of the Napoleonic Wars, and returned home to have a political career in Scotland. Graham visited Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden and was famous for his vigor into his old years, traveling from France to Genoa and from there to Rome at the age of 94. He died a year later at 95.